Study Finds That Marriages Last Longer When Couples Are Together For This Long

How much is spent on the wedding affects marriage, too.

The marriage world, i.e. wedding sites, jewelry stores and TLC shows, all have two things in common: hyping up the materialist aspect of marriage and, of course, love... but mostly the materialistic part.

After surveying a sample of straight married couples this past summer and studying their marital habits, satisfaction and age at each part of their relationship milestones, they found that wedding logistisics (other than love) do matter, but not in the way you'd expect.

The more money a couple makes, the less likely they are to divorce.

According to the fingings, couples who make an annual household income of $125,000 total or more are half as likely to divorce.

The more expensive the wedding (and ring), the increased risk of divorce.

The study states that couples who spend $20,000 or more on their wedding are 46 percent more likely to get a divorce. Adversely, couples who spend $5,000 or less are 18 percent less likely to divorce. And the survery concludes the same for engagement rings:

"Spending between $2,000 and $4,000 on an engagement ring is associated with a 1.3 times greater hazard of divorce as compared to spending between $500 and $2,000."

But the more people you have at the wedding, your chances of divorce decrease.

The study found that when the couple has over 200 guests at their wedding, their chances of divorce decrease by 92 percent. "Clearly, this shows us that having a large group of family and friends who support the marriage is critically important to long-term marital stability," said Olson.

Having a honeymoon and going to church matters.

Couples that went to religious services and those that went away on a honeymoon had lower chances of divorcing. According to the findings, couples who went on a honeymoon were 41 percent less likely to divorce, while those who never attend church are twice as likely to divorce.

Three is the magic number.

Couples who date for 3 years or more have better chances of staying together and a more stable marriage. The findings mimic those of a 2006 study which found that couples who have dated less than 6 months before marriage had the highest divorce rate.

In other words, the key to a long lasting marriage stems not from a lot of money, but love, mutual trust and support. Yep, sounds right to us.